Palazzo Farnese
The Palazzo Farnese in Rome is "the most imposing Italian palace of the sixteenth century" ( Banister Fletcher ). It is located in Piazza Farnese ( just behind the Campo de ' Fiori) and now houses the French embassy and the École française de Rome.
History of the palace
Alessandro Farnese, who led thanks to his sister Giulia, a mistress of Pope Alexander VI. , Was appointed in 1493 with 25 years cardinal and a princely life, ordered the construction of the palace in 1514 in order. 1534, when Alessandro Farnese as Paul III. Pope had been elected, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger began with the work, which was continued after his death by Michelangelo. Pope Paul III. instructed the latter to extend the house so that it was suitable as a power center of the Farnese family. In these conversions ( 1546) the central window was extended by an architrave, carrying the largest arms with papal tiara, which Rome had ever seen: When Paul III. entered the balcony, the whole facade should be a single framework for his person. After the Farnese pope's death, the construction work was continued on behalf of his grandson, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the younger.
It was not until 1589, in Alessandro's year of death, was completed in the Palazzo Farnese by Giacomo della Porta. In the years from 1596 to 1608 then several main rooms of Annibale Carracci ( 1560-1609 ), Agostino Carracci, F. Albani and Domenichino were decorated with allegorical frescoes (eg about The Triumph of Bacchus, 1600 ). For the garden, which overlooks the Tiber, Michelangelo proposed to procure the huge mass of the palazzo with a bridge over the river of air that was to connect the center of the garden façade of the Villa Farnesina across the river, in Trastevere.
The Palazzo was inherited from the Farnese by the Bourbon kings of Naples, who in turn sold him to France in 1874. Although the Italian government under Mussolini reacquired him in 1936, resides here continue to the French embassy, now a 99 - year lease. In the Palazzo and the École française de Rome is housed with their great library, which is comprised mainly of books on archeology in Italy and the medieval papal history.
Palazzo Farnese stood for generations - as part of the Farnese collections - the Farnese Hercules, one of the most famous sculptures of antiquity, which has enshrined the image of Hercules in the European imagination.
In Puccini's opera Tosca (1900), set in Rome at the time of Napoleon, the confrontation plays the title role with the police chief Scarpia in the Palazzo Farnese.
The building
The building was built by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and rebuilt by Michelangelo, who added a second floor and courtyard redesigned. It is a three-story building of four wings that surround a central courtyard. The southwestern side is oriented towards the Tiber, while the northeast -oriented main facade Piazza Farnese dominates.
The Palazzo is one of the important secular Renaissance buildings. The often admired private palace of the High Renaissance was imitated almost without interruption until the early 20th century, as for example is the Royal Palace of Riofrio built by Elisabetta Farnese clearly influenced by the Palazzo Farnese.
The architect Aldo Rossi paid a block (with three window axis ) of the Quartier Protect Street ( 1994-98 ) in Berlin with a faithful copy of the courtyard facade of Michelangelo (Protect Straße 8 ).
See also
- Villa Farnesina in Rome
- Villa Farnese in Caprarola